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irregular. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
irregular, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
irregular in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
irregular you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From Middle English irreguler, from Old French irreguler, from Medieval Latin or Late Latin irrēgulāris, from in- + regularis, equivalent to ir- + regular.
Pronunciation
Adjective
irregular (comparative more irregular, superlative most irregular)
- nonstandard; not conforming to rules or expectations
1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 33:‘ “It would be most irregular Grandpa!” says Miss Cecily frowning and tapping her foot. “Well, we’re a pretty irregular family so that’s neither here nor there,” says the old man, impish like. [...] ’
- rough (of a surface)
- without symmetry, regularity, or uniformity
1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick:The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.
2013 January 1, Paul Bartel, Ashli Moore, “Avian Migration: The Ultimate Red-Eye Flight”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 1, pages 47–48:Many of these classic methods are still used, with some modern improvements. For example, with the aid of special microphones and automated sound detection software, ornithologists recently reported […] that pine siskins (Spinus pinus) undergo an irregular, nomadic type of nocturnal migration.
2013 July 19, Ian Sample, “Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 34:Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits. ¶ Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.
2019 October, Tony Miles, Philip Sherratt, “EMR kicks off new era”, in Modern Railways, page 58:The improvements will be most keenly felt across Lincolnshire, where current irregular service patterns are more a function of operational convenience than passenger demand.
- (geometry, of a polygon) not regular; having sides that are not equal or angles that are not equal
- (geometry, of a polyhedron) whose faces are not all regular polygons (or are not equally inclined to each other)
- (grammar, of a word) not following the regular or expected patterns of inflection in a given language
"Calves", "cacti", and "children" are irregular plurals.
I hate learning all the irregular conjugations in French.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Derived terms
Translations
non-standard
- Armenian: անկանոն (hy) (ankanon)
- Belarusian: няпра́вільны (njaprávilʹny), нестанда́ртны (njestandártny)
- Bulgarian: неправилен (bg) (nepravilen), нередовен (bg) (neredoven)
- Catalan: irregular (ca)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 無常/无常 (zh) (wúcháng)
- Dutch: onregelmatig (nl)
- Esperanto: neregulara
- Finnish: epäsäännöllinen (fi), säännötön (fi)
- French: irrégulier (fr)
- German: irregulär (de), unregelmäßig (de)
- Greek: ακανόνιστος (el) m (akanónistos)
- Ancient: ἀνώμαλος (anṓmalos)
- Ido: neregulala (io)
- Irish: neamhrialta
- Italian: irregolare (it)
- Japanese: 不規則な (ja) (ふきそくな, fukisoku na), 変則的な (へんそくてきな, hensokuteki ni)
- Latin: inconditus m, irrēgulāris, ēnormis
- Maori: hikuwaru
- Norman: irrédgulyi
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: irregulær
- Nynorsk: irregulær
- Ottoman Turkish: قاعدهسز (kaʿidesiz)
- Plautdietsch: onbestendich
- Polish: nieregularny (pl)
- Portuguese: irregular (pt)
- Romanian: iregular m or n, nereglementar m or n, neregulat (ro) m or n
- Russian: непра́вильный (ru) (neprávilʹnyj), нестанда́ртный (ru) (nestandártnyj)
- Spanish: irregular (es)
- Swedish: oregelbunden (sv)
- Ukrainian: непра́вильний (neprávylʹnyj), нестанда́ртний (nestandártnyj)
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in grammar, applied to words
Noun
irregular (plural irregulars)
- A soldier who is not a member of an official military force and who may not use regular army tactics.
- One who does not regularly attend a venue.
2015, Brian Cook, Hands Across The Sea, page 190:There's one neighborhood tavern where the regulars and irregulars go after a hard day to unlax and rewind, throw back a few, and just hang out - you know the one.
Translations
Catalan
Etymology
Borrowed from Late Latin irrēgulāris.
Pronunciation
Adjective
irregular m or f (masculine and feminine plural irregulars)
- irregular
- Antonym: regular
Derived terms
Related terms
Further reading
Galician
Etymology
Attested since circa 1300. Borrowed from Late Latin irrēgulāris.
Pronunciation
Adjective
irregular m or f (plural irregulares)
- irregular
- Antonym: regular
Related terms
References
- “yrregular” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI - ILGA 2006–2022.
- “yrregular” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006–2018.
- “irregular” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006–2013.
- “irregular” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
Further reading
Portuguese
Etymology
Borrowed from Late Latin irrēgulāris.
Pronunciation
Adjective
irregular m or f (plural irregulares)
- irregular; nonstandard
- (grammar) irregular (not following an inflectional paradigm)
Antonyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Further reading
Spanish
Etymology
Borrowed from Late Latin irrēgulāris.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ireɡuˈlaɾ/
- Rhymes: -aɾ
- Syllabification: i‧rre‧gu‧lar
Adjective
irregular m or f (masculine and feminine plural irregulares)
- irregular, uneven, erratic, haphazard
- patchy, spotty, jagged, ragged
- fitful
- (grammar) (of a verb etc.) irregular
- Antonym: regular
Derived terms
Related terms
Further reading